Wireless communication networks are increasingly being used for wireless communication with various types of wireless user terminals. The wireless network itself may include a plurality of space-apart wireless base stations, also commonly referred to as “base stations”, “radio access nodes” or simply as “nodes”, that define a plurality of cells, and a core network that controls the base stations and interfaces the base stations with other wired and/or wireless networks. The base stations may be terrestrial and/or space-based. The base stations communicate with the wireless user terminals using radio resources that are allocated to the wireless network. The radio resources may be defined in terms of time (for example, in a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system), frequency (for example, in a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) system) and/or code (for example, in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system). The base stations may use licensed and/or unlicensed frequency spectrum. Radio resources may be assigned to wireless user terminals by the wireless network upon initial communication and may be reassigned due to, for example, movement of the wireless user terminals, changing bandwidth requirements, changing network traffic, etc.
Various types of base stations have been employed during the evolution of wireless communications networks to define various types and sizes of cells deployed by an operator. The cellular industry refers to specific types of cells using loosely defined terms such as macro-cells, micro-cells and pico-cells in respective order of decreasing size. While it is difficult to pin down specific characteristics for these categories, cells, now often referred as “macro-cells”, are deployed to provide the widest coverage area. Macro-cell base stations may have typical power output ranges from the tens to hundreds of watts, and macro-cell diameters of up to 10 km or more in size may be provided. A typical macro-cell has a site with a tower mounted antenna. Smaller cells, now typically referred to as “micro-cells”, were also deployed to provide additional fill-in capacity where needed over relatively short ranges, such as about 300 m to about 2,000 m, and may have an output power of a few watts. Even smaller and lower power base stations, often referred to as “pico-base stations” have been deployed with a power output of less than about 1 watt and a cell size of about 200 m or less. While these definitions are provided to frame the succeeding material, it should be noted that various embodiments described herein relate to a hierarchy with macro-cells having large coverage areas and pico-cells having smaller coverage areas than macro-cells or micro-cells.
The latest type of base station is often referred to as a “femto-base station”. These femto-base stations may be designed primarily for indoor coverage, and may have power output in the range of between about 1/10 to ½ watt, and cell size on the order of about 10-30 m. These femto-base stations typically are portable, consumer-deployed units that may use licensed or unlicensed spectrum. Often, the backhaul to the wireless communications network is via a consumer-provided packet data connection, rather than a dedicated or leased line switched circuit backhaul used in the other types of base stations described. Accordingly, femto-base stations are a type of base station that may be referred to generically as a “re-deployable” base station. Some pico-base stations may be re-deployable as well.
These re-deployable base stations may have various power ranges, backhaul connection mechanisms and/or user terminal frequency spectrum, but can be installed by a customer or user without the need for intervention of a cellular operator. For example, they can be connected to an individual Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and/or cable TV line, to provide for a broadband Internet connection. The re-deployable base station may be limited in range, as well as limited to be able to provide service to a limited number of user terminals, for example, only user terminals registered to a single customer or a group of affiliated customers, such as a small business.
Since these re-deployable base stations can be connected in numerous locations and be relocated by the customer at any time, it may be desirable to identify an accurate location of the re-deployable base station for purposes of network configuration management, interference reduction, billing and/or other purposes. Unfortunately, however, many re-deployable base stations do not include a built-in position determination system, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) or other equivalent system for determining the location thereof. Moreover, even if included, these position determination systems may not work well indoors.
Re-deployable base stations as well as other mobile devices may be deployed as secondary devices in spectrum that has already been assigned for primary use. The VHF and UHF spectrum assigned for TV in the USA is an example and is also commonly known as “white space” spectrum. In such cases, current rules and expected future rules for use of such spectrum allow secondary devices to access this spectrum in a license-exempt manner. However, registration with a database that maintains the status of spectrum usage, may be required. This database contains locations of secondary spectrum users. A device intending to use white space spectrum may need to be able to compute its location and then query the database to determine availability of the spectrum. Use of an available channel may then need to be registered with the database.